EDMONTON - Megan McGregor is a hard-working Grade 12 student in Sherwood Park, dreaming about a career in medicine and the tattoo she plans to get as soon as she turns 18.

She and her friend, Hannah Kirchenbauer, an aspiring writer who hopes to one day get her PhD in English, will likely go with a couple of friends this fall to get tattoos together, once they’ve all turned 18, the age at which they can get inked without their parents’ consent.

Not that their parents don’t approve. Kirchenbauer’s folks are buying her a tattoo as a gift for high school graduation and her 18th birthday.

McGregor’s mother has nothing against tattoos — she has one of her own that reads “famille” (French for family), on her wrist.

McGregor and Kirchenbauer are among a growing demographic seeking tattoos, a form of body art that has become so commonplace, it is more rare in some circles to find people without tattoos than with them.

That’s the case for 22-year-old Jane Voloboeva, who jokes she is the odd woman out among her friends and acquaintances because she is the only inkless one.

“If you were a black sheep for having a tattoo, say, five years ago, now you’re a black sheep if you don’t have a tattoo,” says the University of Alberta drama major.

Many of the young women in her dance class have tattoos just below their rib cages, or on the back of their necks so they can wear their hair down to cover them up if they like.

Those who don’t have tattoos are often saving their money to buy one, she adds.

Body art and piercings are so prevalent, they’ve become a popular icebreaker topic at parties. “People will come up to you and ask, ‘do you have any tattoos or piercings?’” she says.

While she does have her belly button pierced, Voloboeva doesn’t plan on getting a tattoo any time soon.

“It’s a question of identity now for young people. They think it defines them and their struggle or their journey to this point in their life — which I think is completely bogus.”

While some young people give little thought to their tattoos, Kirchenbauer says she’s not among them. “I’ve thought it through. I’ve been thinking about a tattoo since I was 15.”

Her first tattoo will be a feather quill and scroll, to represent her love of writing. After that, she hopes to get a music-related tattoo (she plays four instruments) and then, a Triforce symbol from The Legend of Zelda, her favourite video game.

“I don’t plan on getting anything explicit or senseless,” she adds.

“Even if it looks stupid in the future, there will always be a story behind it and it will be a memory of the past.”

Kendra Berndt, manager at Eye of the Lotus tattoo studio, says she’s seen a big increase in the number of 18-year-olds getting tattoos, especially women.

She attributes it in part to celebrities like Rihanna having multiple tattoos, as well as to the growing social acceptance of tattoos.

“You’ll always find trends in tattoos just like you would in clothing. So now, things like script are very popular and song lyrics,” she says.

“Quotes are huge right now,” says Alissa Derdall, a tattoo artist at Bear’s Skin Art. “Last Saturday I think 75 per cent of our walk-ins wanted quotes, or words; little catchphrases like ‘never look back,’ and ‘not all who wander are lost’ — I did that one on Saturday — inspirational quotes like that.”

Most young women want them under their ribs, where they can be seen in a swimsuit, or on their forearms or wrists, she adds.

The shop does mostly custom tattoos for which people pre-book appointments. But Saturdays are left open for walk-ins, so Derdall and the other artists see a steady stream of teens looking for the latest trend tattoo.

“It can be annoying when you do 300 script tattoos in three weeks. It’s like script is what you get when you can’t think of what to get,” she says.

Anastasia Powell, a tattoo artist at Eye of the Lotus, says she too has seen more than her fair share of script tattoos. “Everybody and their dog wants some writing on them,” she says. “For people in the industry, it’s a little passe, a little cliched.”

Powell says she’s also seeing more young, first-time clients looking for big tattoos — both men and women. “Not just, ‘I want my first butterfly,’ but huge pieces. I have people who turn 18 or 19 and they want their entire back done.”

Another growing market for tattoo artists is older women, says Derdall. “They’re career-minded mothers who, when they were younger, they couldn’t get them because everyone thought, ‘only sluts get tattoos,’ but now they’re coming out and getting their tattoos because no one’s going to look down on them for it,” says Derdall.

Derdall’s own mom got her first tattoo at 60, with the names of Alissa and her brother. She also has an elephant tattoo for her granddaughter.

Tawny Robertson, a 37-year-old mother of two, is at Bear’s Skin Art planning her own tattoo — a scroll of flowers that will take up much of her back — and watching her husband, Jason, 35, get his new tattoo inked.

“I’ve been saying for a while that I wanted to get something,” says Tawny, who has a tiny tattoo on her back from many years ago that she was looking to cover up, but has since decided to incorporate into her much larger, flower tattoo.

Powell says flowers, henna patterns and other feminine pieces are particularly popular among the many 35- to 45-year-old women she sees. “They always wanted it but they were a little shy about it, and now they can do it since tattoos are so much more accepted.”

About two-thirds of the work she does is covering up bad tattoos people got when they were younger, she says. Even Powell, now 32, is getting some of the tattoos she got at 18 lasered off, mostly so she can cover them up with fresher, better art.

Adrianna Greenwood, 26, is getting the tiny pixie tattoo she got at age 16 covered up by a much larger piece that will cover her whole back.

“You start tattooing at a young age and eventually you run out of space,” she explains, as artist Stacy Knight at Eye of the Lotus outlines a huge pair of intricate wings on her back.

She’s also getting a large flower design on her lower back that will in mask her old tattoo. The middle of her back is already taken up by Japanese characters that spell out her wedding vows.

Tattoo artists will discourage clients from getting some tattoos they may regret in the future. Powell says no one in her shop will tattoo names of husbands or wives on people, encouraging them instead to get a picture to represent the person they love.

Derdall says she tries to get people to modify the popular tattoos they often want copied. “I think every couple of weeks, someone brings in a picture of The Rock,” she says, referring to the Maori-style tattoos of actor and WWE star Dwayne Johnson.

“I tell people, ‘you know, everyone and their dog has brought this picture in. Can we adjust it at least so you don’t have the same tattoo as everyone else?’”

Derdall says she refused one man who wanted to tattoo “random dots on his face,” and another 18-year-old guy who asked for a cartoon giraffe with pot leaves as the spots.

“I said, ‘Are you joking? Honestly, as a self-respecting artist, I can’t do that.’”

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